Tonight's Poet Corner: And Do You

And Do You
by Belinda Roddie

There was a wedding I officiated
at the local park, where the pond lay
stagnant, but the breeze was warm
and the poppies grew in golden tufts

like lions' crowns
on a kingdom of green.

The two people I married wore
tailored black suits and red ties,
though their boutonnieres sported
completely different flowers:

a yellow rose and a violet for
the ease of Summer's journey,
its chariot gliding across a horizon,
trimmed with the emperor's braid.

The words I spoke
were not my own
but theirs instead.
I recited poetry once kept

in books tucked under beds. I drank
the vows in like champagne before
the fathers could even give their toasts.
Behind spectacles, I saw the sun's descent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Today's OneWord: Madman

Here we have the madman, standing at the podium. He screams threats and obscenities, and the meager audience cheers. They wear red hats and stamp their feet and gesture to the wind, taunting the spirits and daring them to change the course of time, to change the course of history, which never, ever ends. The madman is strutting. He's grinning at his prize. In perhaps a year, the world will change - the colors will all dim.
Read more

Today's OneWord: Statues

Why were the statues going white, and why was the rain cascading in sheets? I tried to find solace by the window, but the world outside had become nothing but glass. Blankets of water blurred the semblance of life that I stretched my mind to detect. Near me, my lover was asleep on the divan with wine pooling across her lap. Her curls lay in wet swaths around the warm nape of her neck. The statues would crumble in due time. The deluge was impending. We both would drown.
Read more